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It would take a lot now to put a damper on the 100th Grey Cup celebrations.

CIS football doesn’t get much attention from the Canadian public during its regular season and playoffs, so it was spectacular to see 37,098 spectators show up at Rogers Centre to watch the Vanier Cup on Friday night.

That was a record crowd for the Canadian university championship game, and it simply cemented the fact that the Vanier and Grey Cups should be paired together every year. Sure, the fact McMaster University — from just down the road in Hamilton — was in the game didn’t hurt and there won’t be 37,000 fans every year, but let’s face it: The crowd will be bigger if the Grey Cup patrons are already in town.

It was a great night for amateur Canadian football. The CIS no doubt gained a few fans, and even thought it ended up being a blowout it was a tasty appetizer for Sunday’s big one.

OPENING KICKOFF

The organizing committee showed a cool video just prior to the introductions. It took footage from Laval’s and McMaster’s seasons and played it backwards until it got to the point where the teams were both about to come out of the tunnel before last year’s Vanier Cup at B.C. Place. As soon as the video ended, the Rouge et Or shot out of the tunnel. Well done … There were big boos for Laval as it came out of the tunnel, which wasn’t surprising when you consider most of the crowd was wearing maroon … The teams tried to get at each other just before the anthem, which is becoming obligatory prior to every big football game played on the planet. Just once the refs should let them get to each other and see if they’d actually fight … Marauders quarterback Kyle Quinlan was throwing it deep early on, looking for a quick strike, but was overthrowing his receivers. A little too pumped up perhaps … Quinlan sure has an arm, and he also has a mean play action move. I’m still watching the running back … The Marauders had some strange plays early. Laval kicker Boris Bede missed a 39-yard field goal, and Josh Vandeweerd ran it out of the end zone for some reason. He got stopped at the three-yard line, but the Marauders were able to get the ball out from underneath the shadows of their goal posts and avoided giving up the safety.

SECOND DOWN

Commissioner Mark Cohon was asked on Friday morning how close the CFL is to designating a spot for Canadian quarterbacks on rosters. Thankfully the commissioner didn’t sound remotely close to committing to that, because that’s not how Canadian pivots are going to be successful. It’s going to take solid training that begins at the grassroots level to nurture topnotch Canadian passers. Right now Canadian quarterbacks can’t compete with their American counterparts, and the CFL shouldn’t force its teams to put one on their roster. The CFL brings Canuck quarterbacks to its evaluation camp and now allows teams to have a CIS pivot to training camp, which is good, but by then it’s too late. The development needs to happen sooner. “I’m optimistic that a player like Kyle Quinlan one day will play in our league,” Cohon said … Speaking of quarterbacks, Rouge et Or pivot Tristan Grenon threw a deep pass from the 50-yard line that bounced off the uprights and through. He did not get three points, and the game remained 0-0 … It was a defensive struggle until four minutes into the second quarter, when Laval’s Matthew Norzil caught a screen pass on his shoe tops and darted 28 yards for the touchdown. It was a nice display of athleticism … Vandeweerd then made another questionable decision when he took a punt at his own 13-yard line and then started going the wrong direction. He ended up getting tackled on his one-yard line, and it led to a safety.

FINAL GUN

The Rouge et Or could have been kicking themselves hard at the end of the game if they had lost by three points or fewer. After the Marauders stormed back with two touchdowns in the span of 1:12 late in the second quarter, Grenon hit J-S Haidara on a 75-yard catch and run to the McMaster two-yard line with 13 seconds left. Unfortunately for the Rouge et Or, they were unaware that Haidara had actually gone down in bounds. The clock ticked down and by the time Grenon’s incomplete pass to Norzil had hit the turf, there were zeroes on the clock … Argos owner David Braley was on the McMaster sideline, sporting a Marauders golf shirt in the fourth quarter. After his B.C. Lions lost last week’s West final, the Argos owner better hope bad things don’t really come in threes … Bede, the Laval kicker, had an outstanding game. His kickoffs were deep, and his punting placement was outstanding. He missed a 39-yard field goal but hoofed 22-, 37-, 20- and 31-yarders to help his team’s cause. He’s from France and he’s only in his second CIS season, but he might be one to watch … One CFL scout I chatted with was particularly impressed by the play of Laval defensive lineman Arnaud Gascon-Nadon, a Hamilton Tiger-Cats draft pick … The scout wasn’t from the Ticats, by the way … Laval owned the trenches all night long … The star of the show was, without a doubt, Laval running back Maxime Boutin, who racked up a whopping 253 yards along the ground — the second most in Vanier Cup history — and scored two touchdowns … The Rouge et Or now have the most titles in CIS history with seven, despite forming only in 1996, and they capture titles like clockwork. They’ve won in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and now 2012.